Optical fiber can be used as a medium for networking or telecommunication because it is advantageous for high-speed and long-distance communication of optical information. Recently, the optical fiber communication gradually replaces the conventional copper-based communication. The optical fiber communication has more and more applications such as the internet, cable televisions, IP phones, electric meter/water meter reading checks, or the like that can be integrated into optical communication equipment. As such, the applications of the optical fiber communication are continuously expanded and closely linked to household or daily lives.
For designing a new building, a fiber to the home (FTTH) architecture is usually taken into consideration. According to the FTTH technology, a wiring process has been previously done to deploy optical fiber cable directly to the user terminals. While executing the wiring process of the optical fiber cable, it is usually difficult to determine in advance whether the optical fiber communication equipment is used for each user terminal and the actual usage requirements. On the other hand, since the optical fiber is costly and fragile and is made by specified material properties, the optical fiber cable is not usually trimmed at the construction site. As such, after the wiring process of the optical fiber cable is finished, a surplus optical fiber cable is retained and an additional cable manager is used to protect and store the surplus optical fiber cable.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a cable manager for managing an optical fiber cable according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, the cable manager 1 comprises a housing 11, a cable winding structure 12 and a perforation 13. The perforation 13 is formed in the housing 11, so that the optical fiber cable 5 could be introduced into the internal portion of the cable manager 1 through the perforation 13.
For performing an optical fiber wiring process, the cable manager 1 is firstly installed on a proper location of a wall (not shown). Then, the optical fiber cable 5 is introduced into the internal portion of the cable manager 1 through the perforation 13 and wound around the cable winding structure 12. As such, after the wiring process of the optical fiber cable 5 is finished, the surplus optical fiber cable 5 will be managed, accommodated and protected within the cable manager 1.
Once the user intends to additionally install optical communication equipment or optical fiber communication conversion device (not shown), the optical fiber cable 5 needs to be partially or completely pulled out of the cable manager 1, and then connected to or re-installed in the optical communication equipment or optical fiber communication conversion device. In this situation, the cable manager 1 needs to be disposed beside the new equipment, or the cable manager 1 is not used.
For solving the drawbacks, some literatures have been disclosed as follows.
For example, Chinese Utility Patent No. 2932415 disclosed an optical fiber cable managing device. The optical fiber cable managing device is fixed on a circuit board. In addition, electronic components are mounted on specified locations of the optical fiber cable managing device in order to save layout space of the circuit board and minimize the volume of the product. Since the housing for installing the circuit board and the optical fiber cable managing device are not described in this patent, the above cable-managing problems fail to be solved.
In addition, Taiwanese Utility Patent No. 248115 disclosed a wire managing disk. A guiding ring is formed on a first surface of the disk body. A protruding ring is formed on a second surface of the disk body. As such, the signal transmission wire could be stored and wound on the both surfaces of the disk body. The wire managing disk is integrated with the circuit board and the casing according to the usage design. Since no modular design is provided, the user fails to determine whether the opto-electronic converting module is installed or not.
In addition, Taiwanese Utility Patent No. 286376 disclosed a fiber to the home (FTTH) module. The FTTH module comprises a main body and an optical fiber cable winding disk. The optical fiber cable winding disk is pivotally coupled with the main body. As such, the optical fiber cable winding disk is permitted to be rotated and opened in order to facilitate the installing/uninstalling operation(s) of an optical network module and a media converter module. Since the optical fiber cable winding disk is a discrete component and the coupling structure of the optical fiber cable winding disk is complicated, the process of assembling the optical fiber cable winding disk is time-consuming, and the optical fiber cable winding disk is readily damaged during operation. In addition, the application of the optical fiber cable winding disk is restricted by the dimension of thereof.
Taiwanese Utility Patent No. 299444 disclosed a communication equipment converter with a cable winding function. By a cable winding member or an optical fiber cable fixing structure, the optical fiber cable could be stored on a backside plate, which may be fixed on a surface of a wall. As such, the optical fiber cable is temporarily stored. In addition, a lower cover and an upper covering plate are combined as a casing. After a circuit assembly is installed within the casing, the casing is fixed on the backside plate in a hooking manner. Although the process of installing the communication equipment converter is convenient, there are still some drawbacks. For example, since the optical fiber cable is stored and fixed on the backside plate, the processing flexibility of managing the optical fiber cable is restricted.
From the above discussions, some drawbacks are encountered from the conventional process of managing the optical fiber cable. For example, the optical fiber cable is readily damaged during the installation of the communication equipment converter. The installing process is troublesome, the structure is complicated or the layout space or resource is wasted. In addition, since the optical fiber cable is only stored at the fixed position, the installing flexibility is insufficient. Therefore, there is a need for providing an improved optical fiber communication conversion device in order to obviate the drawbacks encountered from the prior art.